She looked at the desk with great satisfaction. She opened the
little drawers and found to her surprise that one was filled with
foreign note-paper in delicate blue. "Just what I want for my
letters to papa," she thought with a little sigh, "and it was so
thoughtful of them to get blue, for that will express my feelings
so much better."

"It's quite like having a fairy godmother," she said aloud, as her
eye took in a carved book-rack filled with books, and wandered to
the pretty tea-table where a tall chocolate pot seemed to proclaim
that nothing so harmful as tea should be taken by the girls who
might make merry there.

"She's every bit as nice as a fairy god-mother," said a gay voice,
and Ruth turned suddenly to see standing in the doorway a plump,
red-haired girl with a fuzzy black kitten nestling on her shoulder.

"On, you are Betty, I know," cried Ruth, much to the astonishment
of her guest.

"I am, but I don't see how you knew," answered Betty, opening her
brown eyes very wide.

"Oh, the fairy godmother wrote me about you," laughed Ruth, "and I've
looked at your picture at intervals all the way on from Chicago."

"Then you know Charlotte and Dorothy, too, and we shan't seem like
strangers," said Betty with great satisfaction. "I live just across
the street, and I saw you come and knew Mrs. Hamilton had gone in
town, so I thought I'd run over and see you."